galehar wrote:Counterarguments
These all feel like reasons a larger inventory isn't necessary, not reasons why adding it would be bad. Yes, you can get by with a 52-item inventory most of the time, but that doesn't mean expanding it wouldn't help. You're saying to stop carrying around contingency items that you never use, but, well, sometimes I have a contingency item that I might need in theory but just never have to run into a situation where I need it. And perhaps more importantly, if I don't carry around any of the more niche contingency items because I only have space for the more general-purpose ones, then it effectively renders a lot of them useless. Potions of Lignification are a cool concept that have some applications, but considering how situational they are I don't necessarily want to lug them around with me taking up an inventory slot that could be used on something more general-purpose, or just for storing an extra stack of permafood.
I think for me, what it comes down to is that there are a number of situations in which a limited inventory adds tedium to the game. The best example I can come up with is non-volatile strategic items like spellbooks. Carrying your spellbooks with you is convenient, because it means you can memorize new spells as you get the skill/spell levels for them without having to run all the way back to your stash. On the other hand, because of the limited inventory, carrying your spellbooks with you is often strategically unwise, since you could use that inventory space to carry tactical items or permafood that you're more likely to need while traveling, while there will rarely be a situation where you need access to a spellbook but can't just go back to your stash. So the result is that, every time you want to memorize a new spell, you have to run back to your stash. This is annoying, inconvenient, and adds nothing compelling to the gameplay whatsoever, as far as I'm concerned.
Overall, I feel like the mechanics of inventory space are kind of arbitrary and not always designed around compelling gameplay. At the very least, I can't think of any good gameplay reason strategic items should take up inventory space, in terms of slots or weight. There was already a recent discussion about item distruction where a lot of people seemed to agree that strategic potions and scrolls should be indestructable, because their volatility creates no interesting gameplay and only adds extra trips to the stash. I think having strategic items take up inventory space is the same.
As far as I know, the only gameplay purpose limited inventory space serves is to limit your tactical options. It stops you from carrying around every piece of permafood, every wand, blowgun dart, ammo brand, potion, scroll, etc. you find, "just in case". Instead, you have to pick which options you'll have available. But right now, I think it's limiting in ways that don't serve this purpose. Partly because strategic items take up inventory space, forcing you to keep a stash, partly because we already have item destruction imposing this limit on scrolls and potions, and partly because, in many cases, 52 items is enough to hold enough tactical items that it isn't really that limiting most of the time and just stops you from having extremely niche items available when you encounter the rare situation where they actually are exactly what you need.